The field of the invention is that of electrical appliances and the invention relates more particularly to a door interlock arrangement for an appliance such as a self-cleaning oven or a dishwasher or the like.
In a known and widely used door latching system for certain appliances such as self-cleaning electric ovens and dishwashers, an operating lever conveniently requires only a limited arc of pivotal movement for closing an appliance door but is arranged to move a door bolt with much greater angular velocity and to draw the bolt firmly into place to provide very secure latching of the door. Such systems also incorporate interlock means intended to prevent opening of the appliance door after the end of at least some appliance operations such as self-cleaning of an oven until the temperature in the oven has cooled to a safe level. Such systems also typically include redundant controls for operating at least some appliance components to avoid inadvertent operation of the appliance in self-cleaning modes or the like. It would be desirable if such door interlocking and redundancy functions could be accomplished in a more convenient and economical manner without interfering with provision of the desired secure door latching characteristics.